"When All At Once A Mighty Herd Of Red Eyed Cows, He Saw,"

Badass Larry

Good "Throwback Thursday" Day, y'all.

So funny. A couple days ago, at GiddyUp, Frank, me, Badass Larry, and big Al were sitting around yapping about our "dead zones" when Larry mentions a time when he took his girlfriend out to a local dance hall and requested Fat's,"Blueberry Hill", and "Ghost Riders In the Sky" which the band played.

"Last Saturday, at The GiddyUp, he said, I asked the band to play "Ghost Riders" and the man never heard of it."

"Whaddya think about that, Ben?"

"Well, did you ask the guitar player?" I asked.

"Weren't no gitar player in the band!"

"Aw man. Well, that's why the band couldn't play it," I said.

"You know, I used to be able to play that song... It is really not that hard to learn!"

So, as I'm playing air guitar and singing the clippity-clop bass line of the song, Frank sneaks in with the first stanza...

"An old cowboy went ridin' out one dark and windy day,

Upon a ridge he rested as he went along his way.

When all at once a mighty herd of red eyed cows, he saw,

Plowed through the ragged skies and up a cloudy draw!"

Slappin' my hands against my thighs, and still singing the bass line, Big Al jumps in with,"Yippee Yi Yea", Yippee Yi Oooooo". Then, we all, 'cept Badass, sang...

"The Ghost Riders In the Sky!"

"Well, damn, Larry replied, you guys are REALLY good!"

No one could remember the line about the brands on fire, so we kinda laughed it all off. Frank got distracted and moseyed off, and we went back to sippin' our coffee.

Once again, just yesterday, Larry mentioned "GhostRiders!"

"Do you know who first did that song?" he asked.

"Um, I'm pretty sure Vaughn Monroe made the song popular, but I think the first to perform it was the "'Sons of the Pioneers!"

"Tell you what, Larry, let's look it up in Wikipedia... Whaddya say?"

So we looked the song up and found that a movie cowhand named Stan Jones wrote the song in 1948/49. I then said... "You wanna hear Vaughn Monroe's version?"

"Yeh, Badass Larry replied. We can listen to him "first!"

"First?" I said.

Then came, Johnny Cash's version. Then, Bing Crosby, believe it or not. Then came, Willie Nelson, then Burl Ives (that's the version I like best... keepin' it simple!) and finally, Frankie Laine.

I know that I put a smile on old Larry's face, but with his Covid concerns, it was kinda hard to tell!

First cup!

Copyright 2021/ Ben Bensen III